Though Kasinde Crafts was established in late 2019, Robert – one of the founders – has been involved in the craft industry since 2011. Working with more than 1000 weavers, processing more than 10, 000 items and delivering to all continents but two (South America and greater Asia), KC has learnt a few lessons regarding organising artisans, production and shipping of finished products.
A. Organizing artisans
Understand local cultural dynamics: It’s important to recognise the cultural roles of males and females, and how these impact organization and coordination of artisans for craft production;
B. Production
- Artisans are impeded in a community: As much as artisans may have committed to deliver on specific timelines, there are unexpected events that would derail fulfilling an order on time. Such community events include funerals, community projects, weddings etc. Granted the rural artisans are members are embedded in their communities, they are socially required to participate in such events. This participation means their time and attention is shared and delivery timelines extended. As such, as KC, we always factor such eventualities in providing delivery timelines.
- Artistry is still a part time activity: Rural artisans still pursue other income earning activities to supplement their main income source: agro-pastoral activities. Over time, with increased access to local and international markets, artisanal activities become secondary sources of income, second only to agro-pastoral activities. This means whenever the season requires it other activities (ploughing, planting, weeding and harvesting) take a back seat.
- Never assume artisans will always self-check: Despite years of working together with various artisans, there is always need to have check-ups as frequently as is possible. Laxity and deterioration of quality follows really quickly when quality checks are not enforced.
- Its business: nothing personal: Most of our artisans are women and live in rural areas. As is most rural areas in Africa, income levels are on average lower than urban centers – our artisans groups are not exempt. As with all systems, every individual tries to get the most reward with the most minimum effort. With our artisans, this is replicated with reduced quality as attention to details is more energy consuming vs working mechanically. Learning to approve only quality outputs objectively requires KC to stick with one objective – continuity of the enterprise beyond “today”; Lower quality products results to dissatisfied clients, reducing the probability of repeat clients. Sticking to this objective means saying no to artisans who bring products that don’t meet these quality standards.
C. Shipping
Hustling vs hustle free for local logistical management: There are various forms of logistical management, especially for smaller volumes (less than 200 pieces for each category). These logistical options include use of courier services and sending parcels using trusted passenger services vehicles plying routes that end up in major urban centres and eventually to Nairobi. For the former, the services tend to be more organized with established drop off and collection points; known weights and volumetric weights of products and their prices; traceable payment systems; notification and tracking of parcels. This means the processes of sending and receiving parcels is more defined and known.
On the other hand, giving parcels to vehicles plying a particular route is simpler: give the driver the number of the parcel receiver and give the receiver the driver’s number and they coordinate. However, costs of sending the parcel are sporadic as payments are based on how much space a parcel occupies; coordination between the driver and the receiver is usually smooth but probability of miscommunication between the two is however higher; other factors such as delays from and by the driver are unknown and hence time of receiving the parcel is unknown.
Nonetheless, KC uses this method where there aren’t effective courier services or the groups are too remote to be served by these courier companies. Balancing the two realities is dependent on other factors that need to be adequately weighed before choosing one option. Some lessons related to shipping will be highlighted in depth in subsequent blogs, as some require individualised coverage.
Though just a few lessons have been highlighted unfeatured ones have also provided areas of learning. These learning enable KC to be better in organizing our artisans, managing production and providing the most efficient logistical options to deliver products from our artisans to the buyers, both locally and internationally.